The Yangwang U7 luxury sedan from BYD has passed a 30,000km endurance test with flying colours, losing just 1.3 per cent of its battery capacity despite undergoing more than 350 Flash charging cycles in sweltering conditions.

Held in the southern Chinese city of Nanning, the trial put the U7’s Blade 2.0 battery through its paces in no uncertain terms. It had to deal with temperatures topping 36°C, according to CarNewsChina, with relative humidity up to 80 per cent. 

Front view of a sleek silver luxury car parked on a pale stone plaza, with sharp LED headlights and a wide black grille.
3

The U7 completed 30,000km of driving in eight days, 19 hours and 58 minutes. When it was over, the battery capacity retention rate was 98.7 per cent. According to the publication, the car maintained a cruising speed of 240km/h while the airconditioning was set to 24°C for the length of the test.

Yangwang general manager Hu Xiaoqing said the vehicle used in the trial was selected at random from a showroom and did not deviate from standard trim in any way. She added that the brand welcomes verification and further testing from independent bodies. The impressive result came amid BYD using 758 U7 test vehicles to cover almost 10.5 million kilometres before it’s brought to market.

The U7 is the flagship high-performance sedan from BYD’s most exclusive brand. First revealed in China in March last year, it comes in four and five-seat layouts, EV and PHEV variants, and features the “God’s Eye” suite of driver assist systems.

Four electric motors power the EV version with a total output of 960kW and 1680Nm of torque. Claimed 0-100km/h time is 2.9 seconds with a top speed of 270km/h, and the 135.5kWh Blade battery gives it a claimed CLTC range of 720km. Replenishing from 30 per cent to 80 per cent takes 20 minutes using DC fast charging.

Silver four-door luxury sedan seen from the rear three-quarter, parked on a light tiled surface against a beige wall.
3

In January last year it was announced that the U7 will get an optional power upgrade to 1000kW with a 150kWh battery pack that gives it energy consumption of 17.7kWh per 100km and boosts range to a claimed 1006km.

Chinese pricing for the U7 starts from $132,950. In January, BYD confirmed that Yangwang is coming to Australia, but did not provide a timetable. The brand made headlines with its U9 supercar, which set a record as the world’s fastest production car by reaching 496.22km/h, and lapped the Nurburgring Nordschleife in six minutes and 59.157 seconds.